As a conventional technology for the vehicle front structure, there is known a technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-212757.
The vehicle front structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent. Application Publication No. 2013-212757 includes right and left, front side frames extending in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle, right and left first load transmitting members that are substantially triangular-shaped when viewed in plan view and that are joined to front ends and outer surfaces in a vehicle-width direction of the front side frames, respectively, right and left coupling members that couple the front ends of the front side frames and front ends of the first load transmitting members together, and right and left bumper beam extensions extending forward from the coupling members, in which a bumper beam is placed across the bumper beam extensions and a power unit is located between the right, and left front side frames. The load transmitting members are members that taper in width from the front of the vehicle toward the rear.
There is a possibility that the vehicle described above may be subjected to an incoming impact load from the outside in a vehicle-width direction. In the event of a so-called narrow offset impact, an impact load is transmitted to one of the front side frames through one of the load transmitting members. An impact load transmitted to one of the front side frames is transmitted to the other one of the front, side frames on the opposite side via the power unit, whereby an impact load can be absorbed by the entire vehicle front structure.
In order to securely transmit an impact, load, the vehicle front structure described above requires a highly strengthened load transmitting member. This is because a load transmitting member that, may be easily deformed cannot provide a required impact-energy absorption capability. Typically, it is necessary to use a particular material, such as high-tensile material, or a thicker steel plate in order to strengthen the load transmitting member. However, the use of such a particular material will result in an increase in parts cost or the use of a thicker steel plate will result in an increase in weight.